New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Jammu and Kashmir high court to decide petitions seeking the review of its verdict of scrapping the Roshni Act, on December 21. The striking down of the Roshni Act conferred proprietary rights to occupants of state land.The apex court said that it would hear appeals challenging the October 9 verdict of the high court filed before it in the last week of January.A bench headed by Justice N. V. Ramana considered the oral assurance of solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Jammu and Kashmir administration. He said that no coercive action would be taken against those petitioners who have approached the top court in the matter as they are not “land grabbers or unauthorised people”.Mehta told the apex court that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has already filed a review petition in the high court. He further said that the authorities are “not against bonafide and common people who are not land grabbers”.The bench, which also comprised justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, said that pendency of appeals before the apex court would not come in the way of the high court in deciding the review petitions pending there.The Jammu and Kashmir high court had on October 9 declared the Roshni Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and ordered a CBI probe into the allotment of land under this law.Also read: How J&K’s Roshni Act Was Used to Keep the Poor in the DarkBackgroundThe Roshni Act, or the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting Ownership to the Occupants) Act, was enacted in 2001 with the twin objective of generating resources for financing power projects and granting ownership rights to the occupants of state land for a fee decided by the government. It was passed by the then National Conference government led by Farooq Abdullah. The Act was named Roshni because its aim was to generate funds for hydroelectric power projects.In 2014, a CAG report flagged irregularities under the Roshni scheme. As per details made public, the transfer of ownership rights was approved for 33,000 kanals in the valley as against 314,000 kanals in Jammu. “The approving committee fixed the total price of this land at Rs 317 crores but only Rs 76 crores were recovered. While the beneficiaries in Kashmir paid Rs 54 crores of the Rs 123 crores, only Rs 22 crores of the Rs 194 crores was recovered in Jammu,” The Wire reported.The law attracted allegations that it was fuelling corruption and unauthorised usurpation of public land in J&K. Therefore, in November 2018, then governor Satya Pal Malik repealed the Act.(With inputs from PTI)